“I’ve grown even more handsome,” I tease, knowing that what he’s sensing is my mate, but I’ll let him stew on it for a bit before I tell him or before he figures it out.
“Still not as handsome as me,” he states as he punches me in the arm.
“Well, look who’s here,” Goliath says as he comes through the door of the comms room, followed by Gunner and Hawk. “You sure took your time.”
“Welcome back, brother,” Gunner says as he comes to stand next to us. “There’s a lot going on here. We need you.”
“Oh, what’s up?” Blue asks as he looks around at all of us.
“Well, first of all, we are having a party tonight to welcome you back,” Hawk says as he pushes jokingly at Blue.
“A party, hey! How did you convince King to let you guys have a party after last time?” Blue asks with a raised brow.
“He was all for it,” Hawk quips.
“Now that I don’t believe,” Blue says with a grin, as he knows as well as all of us how much King dislikes parties.
“And you’re right not to,” I say, “but we can get you updated with everything after the party. What do you say?”
“What the hell is different with you?” he asks as he stares at me.
“Nothing, you’ve just been away way too long,” I state, which has the others all grinning as they realize that I haven’t mentioned to Blue that I’m mated. It’s going to drive him crazy trying to figure out what the difference is. Meanwhile, it’s just that my wolf is calmer.
“There is something, I know there is,” he says as he looks around at the grinning faces, “but I see none of you are going to tell me.” With that, he shrugs. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Well, enough talking. Hunter, Frost is looking for you. Something about the food for tonight,” Goliath says, which reminds me that I haven’t organized the collection of meat I ordered this morning.
“Shit,” I mutter, which has the others laughing as I hurry out of the room and towards the garage.
“Hey, where are you going?” Hawk asks as he hurries after me, a grin still on his face.
“You know where I’m going. I forgot to collect the fucking meat.” I look around, looking for one of the cars we use, finding that they are all gone. “Who the hell has taken the cars? We’re bikers, for fuck sake.”
“We are having a party tonight. Maybe that’s why all the cars are gone,” Hawk quips from behind me. “The others are also collecting stuff.” Pulling out my phone, I’m about to dial Frost’s number, when Hawk bumps me with his shoulder. “Relax, Frost has gone to get the meat.”
“You ass,” I mutter, knowing that they all knew I would forget the fucking meat and were revving me up. “I didn’t even remember the fucking meat.” Which is unusual for me when it comes to food.
“You have a lot going on, bro. It’s understandable,” Hawk says as he squeezes my shoulder in understanding.
“Thanks,” I mutter.
“Come on, let’s go identify some of those Hades fuckers. Gunner already has a few photos.” I would rather be going out to see how Dakota is, but I know if anything happens, I will be the first to know, and besides, I can sense that she’s calm. Grunting, I turn and make my way back inside. When I enter the comms room, Goliath and Gunner look up from a map they are looking at and grin at me.
“Very funny,” I mutter as I approach, knowing that Hawk is right behind me. “What are you guys looking at?”
“We are looking for new locations to set up the cameras,” Gunner states as he points to the map. “What do you think of setting up a camera on each side here?” Looking closer, I see that he’s pointing at the main intersection that leads into town. “We would be able to see everyone coming in and out of town in either direction.”
“We would have to set it up in a way so that they don’t know they are there,” Hawk says.
“We were thinking one on the billboard right in the corner. Another on the light post on the other side of the intersection, and the last one on the electricity pole on the other side.”
“Will we be installing more cameras on the other three roads that lead in and out of town?” I ask as I point at the ones I’m mentioning. After agreement of where all the cameras will be located, we start with trying to identify the Hades we already have photos of. I am just looking through images of one of the videos, trying to identify one of the men, when I sense Dakota close by. Looking at the time, I realize that I have been so embroiled in work that I didn’t even notice the time pass.
Standing, I turn and make my way inside where I know she will be. I am just walking into the bar area when she walks in through the other side, Trent right behind her. When I see her, I feel a calmness that I hadn’t realized was missing settle over me. When she steps up to me, I pull her into my arms, taking her lips in a passionate kiss that leaves us both breathless.
“Mmm, should I leave and come back again?” she murmurs against my lips, and I can hear the smile in her voice. All the worries that have been plaguing me the whole day wash away when she’s in my arms, her scent an erotic trigger that has me as hard as steel.
“No, woman, you are just where you are meant to be.” And I kiss her again, feeling her body moulding to mine.